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NAR: Longer closing times hamper home sales

Dec 28, 2015

Existing-home sales, which include completed transactions for single-family homes, townhomes, condos, and co-ops, dropped 10.5 percent nationwide to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.76 million in November, according to the latest National Association of REALTORS' housing report. It was the largest decline since July 2010, according to the report, with sales for the period 3.8-percent below year-ago levels.

Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, said multiple factors were at play for November’s big sales decline. The industry’s adjustment to the new Know Before You Owe rule causing longer closing times could be a factor, he said.

“It’s possible the longer time frames pushed a latter portion of would-be November transactions into December,” says Yun. “As long as closing time frames don’t rise even further, it’s likely more sales will register to this month’s total, and November’s large dip will be more of an outlier.”

Empire State housing market stays hot in January

New York State home sales remained strong to start the new year with 8,698 closed sales, falling just shy of the 2017 record for January, according to the annual housing market report released by the New York State Association of REALTORS. The January statewide median sales price of $266,000 represented an increase of 8.4 percent from a year ago. Click here to read more.